Pieces of the Universe
by Kiera Snow
Summary: The Justice League has long been know for their power and protection of the Earth, but now new eyes turn to the team of heroes and sees a whole other prospect. Please keep in mind that most of the characters are not mine. Their personalities and names were created by the writers, illustrators, and owners of the Justice League comics and cartoons.
1. Chapter 1

Hello. This is a revised version of the first chapter. If you have read it before feel free to read it again. I would also like to turn your attention to my profile page where I post monthly polls in order to figure what my readers want to see in future chapters. This is critical in my writing process.

But anyway, enjoy the story.

In the beginning of the Justice League, operations were small and the team had less complications it seemed, but now with so many members, it's hard to keep up with everyone. Even so Batman has noticed, something isn't right.

It started with some unannounced absences of the newer members. They would miss their shifts for surveillance in the monitor room, or wouldn't answer their com links. Newby mistakes, sure, but when it started happening repeatedly with a wide range of members, it became suspicious. At the moment the missing member is Green Arrow who hadn't answered his com link in a week. Batman decides to look for him, but not in costume.

"Hey, Bats!" Flash comes speeding down the hall stopping inches away. "J'onn wants to see you in the-"

"I'm busy," Batman replies, stepping around the man to continue toward the hanger.

"He said that it's important. Something to do with the new members."

Batman stops for a moment. "Fine," he says, impatience thick in his voice.

"Thanks, Bats," the speedster says before zipping away. Batman stands for a while before letting out a deep breath and turning away from the hanger. As he stalks toward the monitor room, Captian Atom tries to stop him.

"Hey Batman, J'onn is-"

"I know," he huffs before slipping around the hero and continuing down the hall.

J'onn is waiting patiently when the door slides open. Batman stalks in and stops allowing the door to close behind him.

"You noticed something about the members," he states.

"Yes," J'onn replies. "Normally I can find out where they are telepathically, but recently I have been unable to."

Batman's eyes narrow. "Are you sure?" he asks.

"I am certain. I cannot find them."

Batman turns toward the door.

"Where are you going?" J'onn asks.

"If members are disappearing," he says as the door opens in his wake. "I want to know where," Then he leaves, the door sliding closed behind him. The Martian stands alone pondering the same question: where are they?

Superman has been around the world and back, but now his shift in the watchtower is over. As he walks onto the teleportation pads, he wishes Stargirl good night. Then he is flashed over to Metropolis. He quickly changes into his alter ego, Clark, and exits the telephone booth. Taking a deep breath, he exhales, "It's good to be back." Then he starts on his way back home. The sky is orange in the fading light and Clark is exhausted from his duties.

When he reaches his apartment he showers, dresses, and catches up with the local news. Stock market is up, crime rate is down, and no one has escaped from prison yet. There is a news report regarding the Justice League saving people all over the world, and then Clark clicks the tv off. Rising he stretches and turns in for the night, nothing seeming out of the ordinary. As soon he is in bed, he turns out the lights and falls asleep. The world is at peace and it smells sweet.

Bruce Wayne knows lots of people, including the owner of Queen Industries. As Alfred pulls up to Oliver Queen's manor, Bruce notices the lights are out, all of them. He reaches for the door handle, but Alfred stops him.

"Master Bruce," he says. "while it is most likely the residence is empty, might I suggest you have these." He offers a briefcase to Bruce containing a couple batarangs and a handful of smoke and gas bombs. Bruce takes them and conceals them in various parts of his clothing.

"Thanks, Alfred," he replies and opens the car door.

The manor is indeed dark and looks uninhabited. The grass is tall, the windows not spotless, but something else is not quite right. His Batman brain whirring, Bruce walks up to the residence and rings the doorbell. After a few minuets, it is obvious no one is coming to answer the buzzing. Instead, Bruce kicks the door down. No alarms go off, no one comes running toward the sound. The home seems empty. The entry room is dusty and cobwebs have begun to form in the corners. The floors are dull, and yet the air smells sweet rather than musty. Bruce walks further into the seemingly abandoned estate.

" Oliver," he calls. "It's me, Bruce." He goes further, walking up a grand staircase. "Oliver?" he calls. The upstairs is just as dusty as the entry room and even darker. As Bruce progresses, he notices something that is stronger up here compared to downstairs. The sweet aroma that drifts through the air has becomes more pungent since his arrival. Bruce follows that smell toward what he thinks is Oliver's bedroom. When he opens the door the smell is overpowering. In an effort to filter the air, Bruce puts his elbow to his nose, but it is futile. Two creatures are standing over Oliver Queen in his bed and are becoming fuzzier as Bruce looks on. They speak to each other in a strange language and gesture toward the new comer casually. Bruce takes a few shaky steps forward before collapsing to his knees. Still speaking the odd language, one of them approaches and touches Bruce's head before he topples over and blacks out.

Wonder Woman has known J'onn for a long time, and never before had she seen him more agitated. He seems distracted to say the least and keeps staring off into space when procedures slow down. After watching this for half a hour she touches his shoulder.

"Are you ok, J'onn?"

He stops what he's doing and closes his eyes. "No," he finally says.

"What's wrong?" Wonder Woman asks.

"Not here," J'onn whispers and turns from his work. "Stargirl," he calls. "Take over."

"Ok, J'onn," she answers and moves to a better position in order to take charge.

J'onn leads Wonder Woman into the Hall of Justice and waits for the door to close before speaking. "Diana," he begins, worry clogging his voice. "Batman is missing."

Diana gasps. She had too had noticed some the members going missing, but she never would have thought Batman would disappear.

"I looked for Superman too, since he left recently..." he trails off. There is no need to finish, Diana understands.

"Both of them?" Diana whispers, fear washing over her. She turns away in disbelief. "Where do you think..." she murmurs, half to herself.

"I don't know," J'onn answers. "Batman was going to find out when he disappeared."

A thought crosses Wonder Woman's mind. "I'm going to find them," she says. J'onn looks back at her in shock and is met with a look of stubbornness and intent.

What he was going to say wouldn't have mattered. "Take Hawkgirl with you."

Wonder Woman nods and then leaves the room.

After a few moments, the Martian touches a com link in his ear. "John," the Martian says. "Meet me in the hanger."

Truthfully, Shayera has no idea where they're going. Diana said something about finding Superman, but other than that, no idea.

"Why are we trying to find Superman again?" She asks.

"Because he's gone missing. He won't answer his com link and J'onn can't sense him in Metropolis."

"Ok," Shayera says, more annoyed then ever. "So, he's not in Metropolis and off-duty."

"No," Diana says, stopping mid-flight. "It's not just Superman, Batman and Green Arrow are gone too."

"What?" Shayera asks. "Why haven't you alerted the rest of the league!"

"J'onn and I didn't want to cause a commotion or have the league members jump to conclusions."

"Oh, I see," Shayera yells at her. "I you didn't want us to know that maybe we're being picked off one by one! Bruce, Clark, and Green Arrow might already be dead!"

"Calm down, Shayera," Diana says, taking her by the shoulders. "I'm sure they're not dead. We both know Clark, he never gives up without a fight. And so far no one has been able to best him." At this Shayera begins to calm down the pain leaving her eyes. "And don't forget, Bruce. Between the two of them I'm sure they'll be fine."

Shayera pulls away, hugging herself and lands on a nearby roof. Diana follows at a distance landing several feet away.

"I'm sorry," she says softly. "I didn't mean to get so angry. I just..."

"It's ok," Diana replies coming closer to her friend. "We should have told everyone, but we don't know what the situation really is, and until we do, we can't do anything about it."

"I know." There is a pause and then Hawkgirl turns back to Diana a ferocity flooding her eyes. "Let's go."

In the upcoming chapter I will be writing from Green Arrow's perspective. I am wondering if anyone has read the Green Arrow comics. Since Green Arrow has always been seen as a side character in the Justice League cartoons, it is difficult to write his character. Any major characteristics I need to know about? Please tell me if any come to mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone! I'm glad you're enjoying things so far and I'm sorry for the long silence. At this moment in time I would like you to visit my page and be a part of a polling process. In the polls I will be asking you what you think in an effort to give you what you want. Read this chapter and then shoot me review. I'm always open to some supportive criticism.

Green Arrow wakes up with a serious migraine, one he hasn't felt since Grundy landed that hit on his head. As far as he can tell he is in some sort of room with a red glow emanating from nearby. "Where..." he groans, half to himself and half expecting someone to answer. To be perfectly blunt, no one answers. In an effort to get up, Green Arrow leans over to push himself up, except his hands are encased in metal and a chill runs down his arms.

"What the...?" He squints his eyes to see some pretty impressive cuffs holding him to the wall.

With a sigh he looks down, only to look back up at the red glow. Behind two glass panes sits a blurry but familiar face. Green Arrow's eyes widen. It's non-other than Superman...in pajamas.

"You're kidding," Green Arrow says aloud.

"I hope so," says another familiar voice.

"Batman?" Green Arrow asks. "Is that you?"

"Yes," is his reply.

"How-"

"A non-lethal neurotoxin and some bait," he inturupts. Green Arrow stays quiet, waiting for Batman to go on. "What do you see?" he finally asks.

"There's a guy in-" Green Arrow pauses. "Are you telling me you can't see that weird light?"

"What light?" Batman asks.

"There's a weird red light over there, with what I think is Superman in his PJs."

"It's probably a lamp emitting red sun radiation."

"Which means?"

"He isn't getting out anytime soon."

Green Arrow lets out a sigh that hangs in the air like a question, a question that can only be answered by their captor: where are they? As a silence looms over the two vigilantes, something large enters the scene. Its clomping footsteps and heavy dragging suggests a rather large person or thing. Batman mutters something, but Green Arrow can't make it out over the sounds. Mechanisms whir, metal clinks on metal, and the footsteps clomp away.

"What happened?" Green Arrow asks. There is silence. "Bats?" he calls, a moan answers him. Superman is shifting in his cell. Green Arrow sees him squint and blink a few times. "Hey, Superman."

Superman squints some more trying to make out his neighbor. "Who's there?" he asks.

"Green Arrow and Batman," Green Arrow replies.

"Bruce?" Superman asks.

"Here," he replies. "Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl are in the cells to your right."

Green Arrow can't contain his shock. "No," he says.

"Yes," Batman states.

"Any way out, Bruce?" Superman calls.

"Stop calling me that," Batman growls. After a pause he says, "Not yet." Again silence fills the room.

Arrow leans forward. "Well," he says. "If neither of you have any ideas then I'll just have to make something up." He leans forward some more, pulling on his restraints in earnest. He hears them click and shakes his hands about in an effort to loosen them. They clatter in response. He leans back again and looks up to find little change. He shakes the shackles and sees them shift against the wall, loose screws rattling in response. A smile touches his lips and he shifts his feet beneath him.

Leaning forward, he pulls the cuffs away from the wall with no success. He tries again, this time his wrists ache in disapproval.

"Arrow stop," Superman says. "You're not getting out like that."

"Oh yeah?" Green Arrow says, looking up at the weak Kryptonian. "Just watch me."

This time he pulls hard on the cuffs, his arms aching and wrists screaming in pain. He grunts putting the whole of his body into one more one-sided thrust. That's when a crack echoes around the cell. Green Arrow gasps in agony as his right arm goes limp and a sharp jolt ripples through his shoulder and up his neck. He collapses to his knees breathing heavily and waiting for the pain to ebb.

A tension hangs in the air until the clomping footsteps return. Again mechanisms whir, metal clinks on metal, but then a murmuring gibberish starts up. It continues becoming softer and louder at certain points. The pain in Green Arrow's shoulder begins to dull and he looks up trying to discover the source of the strange language.

For a while he can only imagine the thing that mutters on, then the creature comes into view and reveals to him a whole new understanding of their situation. It is a large humanoid with a dark grey hide and piercing yellow eyes. As it glares at Green Arrow, it continues making the strange sounds and he notices a collar around its neck. It points at Green Arrow and another creature peeks in. This one is human size, a deep blue with a body that reminds him of a snake. It's arms move frantically as it replies to the larger creature. That's when Green Arrow realizes that their languages are different, very different.

A thought comes to mind, a crazy one that instigates a grin. "Hey, meat lug!" he calls. The creatures turn toward him with interest. "Why," he asks. "do you hang out with that worm?" At that, the blue creature begins yelling at him. In response the bigger one starts mumbling to it as if to calm it. Green Arrow's grin spreads even further. They can understand English. He tries another insult, in an effort to make one of the creatures open the glass panel. "I really can't tell what you think of me," he says looking at the bigger creature. "But I gotta wonder if you've ever looked in a mirror." The creature blinks at Green Arrow and then a liquid begins to seep from its hands. It quivers and a groaning issues from it. The blue creature stops its screeching to pat the larger one and starts talking to it in a sing-song way. Green Arrow's grin dissipates, he doesn't really know what it's doing, but it seems he actually hurt its feelings. "Disovu ka?" someone says. The grey mass looks up and mutters something in response, while Green Arrow tries to figure out just what he did wrong.

The muttering continues with the blue creature coming in every once in a while to reply to the other gibberish being spoken. At one point Green Arrow catches some Spanish and French, but the rest might as well be one of the alien languages. It lasts for a good while, maybe a hour. During this time, Arrow wiggles his shoulder until he realizes what went wrong. When he had thrust forward, his shoulder had been dislocated. Now he realigns, fixing it into place and pushing it against the impressive hand cuffs. It pops into place sending a surge of pain down his arm and spine. He grunts in shock and lets out a deep breath of relief. The grunt catches the attention of the larger alien being, who drops out of the conversation with the blue creature and other someone. It stares at Green Arrow for sometime, with Green Arrow not missing a beat. They stare at each other intently, curiosity from the alien and caution from Green Arrow.

Finally the conversation ends and the blue alien touches his companion muttering something to it. The creature isn't looking away though. It instead mutters something back and opens the glass panel.

Green Arrow stays very still as the grey mass lumbers toward him with it's smaller companion chattering to it as it does so. It stops inches from him, putting a desperate thought in his mind. He kicks the creature in the middle, both feet connecting with the rock hard body. Only problem is, he might as well have kicked a wall. The jolt backfires up his legs, making him wince. The creature notices and moves his face closer to Green Arrow's, a smell of dirt and sulfur washing over him. Green Arrow only glares back, noticing that the silence has returned.

After a good minuet or so, the creature backs off, letting Green Arrow's feet fall to the floor. Turning to a wall, the creature touches a panel that opens and spits something out. It is a collar much like the one both the aliens are wearing, and creature looks intently at it before looking back at Green Arrow. He understands instantly. As the creature comes back toward him he struggles against the cuffs.

"Arrow!" Superman shouts, as the alien snaps the collar around his neck. He feels it drill into his spine and a buzz surges through his body. He gasps in shock, then it stops. His head falls forward and he is still, his mind reeling.

"You don't be bad anymore," says a grumbling voice. Arrow looks up to that same grey face as before. "You no kick and be mean to Galbix," it says. Green Arrow blinks in shock. "Ok?" it asks.

"O-ok," Arrow replies. The creature then leans over and releases him. Still startled, he stands up and rubs his wrists. "Why did you do that?" he asks the creature.

"You now friends with Galbix," it grumbles.

"Friends?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

"You be servant to Master, and Galbix be servant to Master. Now you and Glabix friends!"

Green Arrow's eyes go wide, "Master?"


	3. Chapter 3

Woot! Chapter 3! I know everyone has questions regarding the bad guys and I promise you the answers are there. I challenge you all to guess before I give away the premise.

Also, stop by my profile. I have a poll running that will help me create better narratives and give you the content you want to read. Participate for your benefit, not mine.

Chapter 3

The Question leans back in his office chair and rolls back away for the computer in front of him. It all makes sense, every detail fits perfectly, which leads to one solid conclusion. He pulls out a cigarette and lights it. But how could he tell the League about something like this. Like so many of the world's conspiracies the knowledge of such a thing would lead to chaos. He exhales the cloud of smoke with a sigh. Decisions, decisions.

A loud bang disrupts his thinking as the door flies across the room. "Question!" a blond teenager yells at him. "Supergirl," he replies, only a bit startled by her entrance. It was only a matter of time before she showed up, and he is the obvious person to ask about things such as this. She stalks over to him with a look he doesn't like and plucks the smoking roll from his concealed lips. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" he asks back. He can't tell her, she'll just race off and disappear too. Besides, he finally figured out how to deal with the situation. "You know exactly what I mean," she growls back. Nope, definitely can't let her in on it, yet. "Why don't you remind me," he says to the raging Kryptonian and kicks the power cord under the desk, turning the computer off. Her eyes start to glow as she grabs Question by the collar. Nose to nose with him she asks, "Where Is My Cousin?" Question holds her arm as she glares at him, her eyes ready to burn.

"Kara?" a familiar voice asks. The Question looks back at the first Green Lantern as he peers through the busted doorway. "Is everything ok?" he asks with concern. Kara's arm lowers just slightly. "Hal," Question calls. Hal looks back in surprise and confusion. "It's a Collector. Probably from outside the Gaudians' realm." A look of confusion floods his face as he grapples with the idea. "What are you talking about?" Supergirl asks as her glowing eyes begin to fade. Question pins his gaze on Hal as understanding suddenly lights his face. He leaves the doorway quickly and starts calling to other heroes on his comlink. Kara turns back to the Question with a confusion and frustration, "Explain."

"There are pink flamingos in the cafeteria," he responds, suppressing a smirk. His head hits the wall with a bang. "Tell me the truth!" she yells. "You can't handle the truth!" he yells back. With a look of pure rage she glares at him before dropping him and racing after the Green Lantern. Now sitting atop his cluttered desk he pulls the box of cigarettes out of his coat pocket. Lighting yet another, he leans against the wall and takes a long puff. As the smoke lifts and dissolves into the surrounding air he thinks to himself, "No one can handle the truth."

Superman feels helpless. It's not like this has never happened before, but this is far beyond those times of capture. He has to get out this time. The other members need his strength. After witnessing Green Arrow's struggle with the alien he is more determined than ever, but then Green Arrow started talking to it, and then the other alien showed up. Clark is more determined than ever as the hero now leans against the wall of his cell, unrestrained and fuming. He can hear as the doors to the other cells slide open and closed, and gasps of shock respond to the unmistakable sound of screws drilling into bone. It was only a matter of time. He waits quietly, summoning all of his strength and focus as the door next to his opens with a whir.

"No, stay away from me," Shayera says with a trembling warrior's voice. Kal'el blocks it out and hones his power and strength. His door slides open and the stone giant steps up to him with a collar in hand. Kal'el narrows his eyes as the creature gets closer. Just as the smell of sulfur hits his nose and the collar is centimeters from his neck he lashes out, knocking his head with the alien's and kicking him in the chest with all the force he can muster. It sends the creature tumbling back, dropping the collar that goes skidding across the floor.

Superman takes deep breaths. It took a lot of energy to do that simple task and now he glares at the giant with triumph. Perhaps it will back off and call another to do the job, or give up and leave him out of whatever the plan is. But as he glares at the startled form he sees something else in its eyes, anger. It mutters something and Arrow's eyes widen. As the creature stands up again, he shouts, "Superman, look out!" And quicker than Clark could imagine, the creature slams its hand over his face and shouts back at him in a thunderous language. The collar is then around his neck and drills deep into his spine. A cry of pain escapes his mouth and the creature releases him. "BAD KRYPTON!" The thunderous voice yells, making Clark's ears ring. The red light turns off and the creature stomps away in anger.

Due to lack of creative motivation, this story has been put on hold until the completion of The Other World. I understand any frustrations due to this decision, and hope that I will be able to return this story soon.

\- Kiera Snow


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